Computer games are the most popular entertainment for users, which has long since turned into a profitable business. The revenues of such giants of the industry as Valve, Ubisoft, EA Games, which earn more than a billion dollars a year separately, clearly demonstrate that games are a commodity, and players are not against spending huge amounts of their own money on their hobbies.
Despite the presence of conditionally free games, the majority of game applications pursue a very specific goal – this is to make money from their audience, promoting paid bonuses for Vulcan players, purchases and transactions. Developers of shareware games that also receive some revenue from advertising, however, such games are in most cases projects of small studios or individual developers.
Let’s start with the fact that there are games for money. Gambling is clearly aimed at making money from its audience. Everyone knows that the casino always wins, but players can also win a good fortune on such platforms as Bettilt. Such games are conducted according to their own rules, but they all have one thing in common – they involve risking real money. If you are not ready to spend them, if you do not fully understand the risks and consequences, it is better to refrain from such games. Let’s talk in more detail about gambling.
More mercantile representatives of the industry use two main methods of monetization. The first, the most classic and familiar to users, involves a one-time purchase of permanent access to the game. Given the presence of specialized online game stores, during the purchase process, instead of a physical medium with the game, the user receives an access key to it or access to download the licensed version of the game on the store’s website.
The purchase price depends on the price policy of the developer and distributor. As a rule, the most anticipated projects, on the development of which tens of thousands of dollars were spent, cost 10-50 dollars per copy. Indie games and games from small studios can be offered to fans of the genre much cheaper – from a few cents to a few conventional units.
The second way to monetize is through in-game transactions. Some games that earn revenue from players in this way are completely free in themselves. You can continue to play them for free, but at some point you will be offered to pay a small amount, and in return receive some privilege, in-game currency or unique items, skins, trophies.
Please note that voluntary transactions bring enormous amounts of money to developers. Despite the fact that most of the virtual goods inside the game are sold for a nominal amount of real money, avid users spend tens or even hundreds of dollars every month on such games.
According to estimates, the size of the gaming audience is increasing, and some experts predict that it will reach the mark of approximately 3.8 billion by 2027, which is a growth of at least 20%.
The growth of the industry of games and virtual worlds represents quite a challenge for the existing media business, in particular for television companies, which are actively, but often unsuccessfully, trying to attract the attention of young viewers.
Gamers are a wide and very diverse audience. All available statistics agree that men and women enjoy games equally. With this trend, inclusivity and gender equality are naturally built into the gaming ecosystem. One recent initiative to support gamers is a partnership between Xbox and paidia, a female-founded and female-led game development company.
In addition, games are considered the most popular hobby in the world. At the same time, unlike passive engagement in broadcast media, the younger generation can not only enjoy the game process, but also literally monetize their gaming skills by participating in various tournaments and competitions, sometimes with huge prizes for the winners.
The field of technology offers endless opportunities, some of which are still unseen or poorly understood, while others are not yet known to the general public. In today’s world, everything is developing rapidly, and the popularity of the gaming industry will only grow and develop. Everyone will be able to find the most interesting thing for themselves both just for fun and for something more serious.